E.F.F.: ACTION AGAINST SPYING PRINTERS

[Anonymous]

Electronic Frontier Foundation Takes Action Against Spying Printers
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has revealed which printer manufacturers
have complied with the US Secret Service to encode pages with
identifying information. It will also take the next step to finding out
what spying printers are revealing.
Last week the EFF announced it
would able to break a code hidden in tiny tracking dots that some
colour laser printers secrete in every document they print. The US
Secret Service admitted to having struck a deal with some laser printer
manufacturers to add tracking information to the printed matter. The
“spooks” claiming it’s a means of identifying counterfeiters.
However, the nature of the private information encoded in each document was not previously known.
The
manufacturer with some printer models identified with spy dots include;
Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson Aculaser, Konika/Minolta, Kyocera, Lanier,
Ricoh, Savin, Tektronix and Xerox. A comprehensive list detailing the
model number can be found at the EFF site.
However there are no laws
to stop the Secret Service from using printer codes to secretly trace
the origin of non-currency documents; only the privacy policy of a
printer manufacturer currently protects users. No law regulates what
sort of documents the Secret Service or any other domestic or foreign
government agency is permitted to request for identification, not to
mention how such a forensics tool could be developed and implemented in
printers in the first place.
Although the American Civil Liberties
recently issued a report revealing what the FBI has amassed against
organisations, as well as documenting non-violent groups including
Greenpeace and United for Peace and Justice. The EFT is also gathering
information about what printers are revealing and how. It has also
filed a ‘Freedom of Information Act Request.

Xerox Printers’ Tracking Codes Cracked
Electronic
Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced that is has successfully managed to
crack a tracking code discovered in some of the
Xerox printer
models. The code is an invisible set of dots that contain the serial
number of the printer, as well as the date and time a document was
printed.
According to the Washington Post, the information appears
as a pattern of yellow dots, each just a millimeter wide and visible
only with a magnifying glass in blue light.
The first analyzed
printers were from Xerox’s DocuColor lineup, but the organization
extended their search to other brands. Other spying printers come from
companies such as Brother, Canon, Dell, Epson, HP, Kyocera and Lexmark.
It is unknown when this coding system first emerged, but 10 year old documents bearing these points have been discovered.
The US Secret Services said that the coding system was designed to prevent counterfeiting activities.
Xerox
officials confirmed the existence of a secret pattern, but announced
that the company was simply assisting an agency that asked for help.

[Author]

October 27, 2005 at 12:13 PM